In 1848 the start of the California gold rush had begun. The gold rush took place in Sacramento Valley in California. The gold was first noticed by James Marshall while near the American River he noticed flakes floating in the water around him. He was working for John Sutter at the time and decided they would go to the gold together. They wanted to keep it quiet but soon enough word got out and people flocked to California. The trip took about nine months and people would travel either by foot or boat. People would do anything to get the money to come out to California. People would spend life savings, mortgages, and borrowed money. The first to arrive were able to find gold nuggets in the stream beds. The work was very hard with no guarantee of success. Not only did people come to get gold but others came to become wealthy by starting their own businesses by the streams.
|
Why did they migrate?
They migrated to find the gold and hopefully become wealthy. Some however wanted to go to start businesses in crucial areas of gold to also become wealthy. What was the impact? This helped with manifest destiny and also helped create more businesses. This also helped many of the lower class families to gain a lot of money. TLH (Cause and Effect)- One must consider that there were multiple causes when people flocked to California. These people took the long and treacherous journey to California in high hopes of becoming wealthy. The majority of the people went to become wealthy on gold but others went to hopefully grow and eventually become wealthy from a business. The immediate effects included many Americans becoming wealthy, the area of California becoming hugely populated, and the majority of California's gold gone. The long-term effects included increasing the population of California and leaving California with nearly no gold afterwards. Although the Gold rush has it's negative effects it also has its positives just like any other situation. |